Samuel wetherill



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@geiten grieten @strat @frn SAMUEL WETHERILL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA. Letters Patent No. 73,145, dated January 7, 1868.

- IMPROYED PROCESS OF MANUIAGTURING WHITE OXIDB 0I' ZINC.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONERN:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL WETHERILL, of Philadelphia, ol Philadelphia county, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Process for thel Manufacture of White Oxide of Zine; andI do hereby declare that the'follewing is a full -andexact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part ofthis application-.f

Previous to my present invention, the manufacture of whit-e oxide of zinc, `in the United States, has been carried on by the process described in Letters Patent granted to me in 1855, which is adaptedto the reduction ofthe zinc ores with anthracite coal, and the two or three establishments working under (or upon the process described in) my said patent have about supplied the entire demand; but the increased expenscs'of deep mining, and the tendency of calaminc deposits to run into sulphur-ets, and the scarcity of rich-ores, have induced to a much greater cost of production than was sustained some time ago.

Notwithstanding the lavish expenditures of money, no new deposits of `zinc ores have been discovered within reac'h of anthracite coal; and the enormous deposits of carbonate of zines in Virginia, W.,) East Tennessee,

ITorthern Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, together with the largedeposits of bituminous coal in the Richmond basin, Tennessee, Great Illinois, and West Mississippi coal-fields, will come into competition now, and may supply the demand for a cheap oxide. But it will be found practicallyimpossible, in the employment of these supplies, to coke large quantities of this bituminous coal, or convert into charcoal large quantities of wood, to carry on the process of manufacturing whiteoxide, and at the same time have either of these lastnamed substnncesrfree from coal-black, z'. e., lamp-black is specifically nearly as light as the flakes of white oxide, and particles of it will travel with the white oxide through all the known processes of separation', and will soil the products. It is apparent that some plan of avoiding this diiiculty will be a great desideratum, and that by overcoming this ditlicnlty, arising in the use, under theknown processes, of the bituminous coal, or wood, a cheap article may be suppliedto the market.

To accomplish these desirable ends is the main object of my present invention, which consists in causing the vapors of combustion, from coal, charcoal, or wood, (in the manufacture of white cxide,) to pass through incandescent carbon, whereby the coal-blaek and oxygen are consumed, and the oxide of zinc vapor is reduced to the condition of aimetallic vapor of zinc, and furnishing such metallic vapor with the necessary supply of oxygen by means of a hot blast, igniting and consuming any specula of eoal-black which might pass through the incandescent coal, all as hereinafter more fully described.

To enablethose skilled in the art to which my invention relates to more fully understand it, I will proceed to describe more fullymy improved method or process of manufacturing white oxide'of zinc, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated an apparatus for carrying out my said invention.

Figure lAis-a top view, and

Figure Zis a front elevation of a furnace for conducting my new process, and which is similar to the Vfurnace employed by me under my formerly patented process,'but with the addition of two' auxiliary furnaces and a het blast, as will be presently explained. l

Figure 3 is a vertical section at the line :c x.

Figure 4 is a vertical section at the line y y, and

Figure 5 is n. 'vertical section at the line z z.

In the several figures I have designated thc same parts by the same letters of reference.

A is the main furnace-chamber, and B the grate-bars or perforated bed of the furnace. C is` its ash-pit, and D the openings, through which the,furnace is charged. E E are the coldblast dues, and e e the passages leading from them to supply the cold blast to the furnace. This much of the apparatus or structure is about similar to that heretofore employed in carrying out the process or method of manufacture described in my' previous patent. On each side of the furnace A is arranged a chamber, F F, beneath which is a conduit or passage, H II. These chambers, F F, are completely covered by the crownarch A of the furnace, and communicate with the chamber A only by means of ports or openings @Z d cl, arid the bottoms of said chambers are formed of perforated refractory `tiie, ff, the apertures of'whioh tile constitute numerous passages of communication between said chambers F F andthe oxide-dues or passages H H, for purposes to be presently explained.

G G are the ues, through which the products of combustion are carried o' to the separating and catchingapparatus, and g g are air-tubes, to which a supply of air is fed, and injwhich the air is heated, and from which the hot blast is supplied to the passages H H, as will be presently explained. lhc {lues Il 1I and chambers F F have doors it' and k 7c, through which access may be had to said llues and chambers when. desired. a is the door of the asbpit.

Having so far alluded in detail tothe several parts of the apparatus employed, I will now explain the procedure of my new or improved process, as practised in the apparatus alluded to.

A re, of small colte, having been thoroughly ignited upon the perforated iron plate or grate Il, of the centre or main furnace A, and the auxiliary furnaces or chambers F F having been supplied with beds of incandescent coals, of coke or charcoal, about up to the level of the lower sides ef the ports rl d J, the charge of ore and coke is put into the furnace A, through the chargin'g-openingsiD, which are stopped by a mass of the charging-materials. Of course the ore is previously crushed by any of thc known means, and mixed with an equal bulk of wetted coke, or with a larger bulk of wetted charcoal, in `thc manner well known to those conversant with the art. lVhen the furnace shall have been thus charged, thc chambers F F iillcd \\'ith incnn descent coals, and the re thoroughly going, so that the zinc vapors arise, the het blast is turned on to the oxideiiues H H, the het blast being Supplied from the tubesgg, which are so arranged, as shown, on the crown-arch ofthe furnace, that a supply of cold air, fed or forced into their upper ends, becomes heated before it escapes from their lower ends into the chambers H H.

The products of combustion having no other source of escape, are compelled to pass through the ports CZ d d, and thence down through the masses of incandescent coals, in chambers F F, and through the perforated tilcsff, into the oxide-dues H H, where they come into contact with and are carried off to the iues G G by the hot blast. And by being thus drawn through the incandescent carbon-chambers and hot-blast ilues, the zinc vapor is reoxidized, and all the undecomposcd s'pecula of carbon which may have passed through the incandescent coals are consumed. After all the zinc shall have been expelled in the operation just explained, a damper may be closed, or inserted, at the termination of the oxide-ducs, the old charge, if necessary, taken out, a fresh bed of small coke introdued and well ignited, and a new charge put in, and the operation repeated or continued, the incandescent chambers being always `kept supplied with fresh coals. The product of my new process, as described, will be a beautiful white oxide, free from smut and coal-specula.

Although I have described my process as particularly applicable in the use of bituminous coal, and its greatest advantages result from its use with such kind of material as could not bc otherwise successfully used in the manufacture of white oxide of zinc, nevertheless my invention, it will be understood, may be applied with considerable advantage tothe manufacture of white oxide with anthracite coal; since in the present process ofv manufacture, undecomposed particles of coal are carried or ballooned along, by the force of the blast, past the tower and cooling-room, and soil the oxide, which objection will be overcome by my present invention.

A ravel or iron spatula may be employed to clean the perforated tiles of ashes, which, together with what oxide may collect in the fines H H, are removed-from the` latter, and may bc mixed with thc material of the charge for the furnace.

Havingffully explained my new process, together with a suitable means of carrying the same into practice, so that one skilled in thelart can fully comprehend it, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- A v Passing the products of combustion from the furnace into an auxiliary chamber or chambers, containing incandescent carbon, and thence through the incandescent coals, into contact with a hot blast, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof, l have hereunto set my hand and seal, this twenty-third day of October, 1807.

SAMUEL WETHERILL. [n 5.]

Witnesses:

W. G. WETHERILL, S. l?. WnrtIEnILL. 

